1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an electronic appliance such as an electronic memory device or the like capable of storing therein secret data which can not be outputted without input of a password, and more particularly, to an electronic appliance capable of erasing not only all data stored therein, but also only the secret data stored therein.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, an electronic appliance such as an electronic memory device or the like has a function for storing secret data to be kept secret and other data into a memory.
In the conventional electronic appliance, however, when a reset operation has once been executed to erase the data stored in the memory, all the data stored in the memory are entirely erased through a single operation.
Because of this, in the case where an operator has forgotten a password required for outputting the secret data, not only the secret data but any other data are simultaneously erased by the execution of a single reset operation. This is disadvantageous in that the operator is inevitably requested to input again the data other than the secret data.